The German company also said pretax profit roughly doubled in the quarter, although that includes $200 million (194.5 million euros) in gains from financial investments and doesn't take into account charges for an employee bonus plan called STAR.

Adjusted for the financial gain and STAR charges, pretax profit should come in below the year-earlier figure of 270.5 billion euros. Because STAR provisions are linked to rises in SAP's share price, the cost of the bonuses rose sharply as a result of a 50% jump in SAP stock in December.

Still, analysts said the figures should cheer shareholders.

"This bodes extremely well for SAP," said Devika Malik at J.P. Morgan in London. On Friday, SAP shares rose 19% to 640 euros. "No one thought they would meet the growth target they had" for 1999 of 15% to 20%.

SAP also said new software-license revenue, a key indicator of growth, rose 40% to around 800 million euros. SAP growth stalled for much of 1999 as customers held back purchases while bracing for feared year-2000 computer complications. The fourth-quarter figures also were helped by the arrival of mySAP.com, a set of products that helps companies do business over the Internet.

Full 1999 results will be released Jan. 24. Until then, the focus will be on a special shareholder meeting for the stock-option vote. SAP needs to introduce options: In the past year, more than 50 employees have left its U.S. unit for rivals and Internet start-ups that offered option packages.

SAP should have an easier time of pushing the plan through than other German companies have had. It formulated its offer after consulting with Ekkehard Wenger, an economics professor who has led the fight against some stock-option programs in Germany. Mr. Wenger has filed lawsuits, for example, that delayed stock-option plans at Volkswagen AG and DaimlerChrysler AG.

Mr. Wenger, who acted as an unpaid consultant for SAP, said he believes the company has come up with a fair plan because the options are linked to SAP's performance against Germany's blue-chip stock index, the DAX. "A stock-option plan has to give rewards for real performance. I would be opposed to plan American-style plans that give options even if the company isn't performing above the rest of the industry," he said.

He added that he isn't sure whether he will even attend the SAP shareholder meeting.

Another frequent critic of stock options, Aneliese Hieke, a spokeswoman for an association of small shareholders, said her group would probably vote in favor of SAP's option plan. "They definitely need options to keep people from going to competitors in the U.S., but we will still ask a lot of questions," Ms. Hieke said.